So you’re saying it’s going to be tough to get my 35" waist down to 31"??
What do you think of CT’s muscle migration theory? If you haven’t read his article/posts about it then he basically thinks his body can carry a certain amount of muscle, but the way he trains can redistribute it. If he’s right then I could add mass to my shoulders by focusing on them and maybe doing less leg work. My legs would shrink a bit but my delts would grow (hopefully).
Have you experienced this? I’ve always trained pretty balanced so I can’t really say he’s right or wrong.
Gonna sound like a heretic here, but how much of isolation work have you done for delts in the past?
I did a month or so of high volume band and cable face pulls, rear laterals and side laterals in addition to rather little overhead pressing in the military and I got notable delt gains. For us taller people only doing more of the big compounds is often not enough when we talk about lagging muscle groups. Go anywhere on the internet and just type “side delts” on there and people will come running over to you telling you to do high volume laterals, so obviously there is something to it.
Before going crazy with volume you want to make sure you can actually contract your delts and do work with them; a boatload of laterals won’t do anything if your traps are the only thing that’s moving the weights
For SGSS I’ve been doing OHP and my “assistance” or extra exercise has been reverse cable fly’s. I’ve done regular fly’s that mostly hits my middle/upper traps and I’ve done rear delt emphasis fly’s where I really cross over and focus on my rear delts. Lately I’ve added a “shoulder complex” that consists of a superset of upright row/lateral raises/bent over or cable reverse fly’s. I’ve also simplified it to cable lateral raises with reverse cable fly’s.
In my next program I’ll hit shoulders all three days of the week that I train. Two of those days will have the added shoulder complex or supserset. I posted that workout plan last week so it’s up the log a bit if you want to see it. My goal is to keep it simple and keep doing the big lifts and be athletic by playing basketball and other sports on my off days. I also want to emphasize my delts a bit which is why there’s more shoulder work than anything else.
But you need big delts to avoid looking like a bottleneck though
Sounds pretty good. Just pay close attention on performing every rep with your delts even if it may be hard and boring at times. You want to get lactic acid buildup in your delts. As a rule of thumb; a great pump means a great delt session
That’s the whole reason I have the delt work as a finisher. It’s also why I skipped it yesterday to play basketball. I wanted to be able to raise my arms on defense and shoot. Conflicting goals!!!
For delts you could try one or more 350 sets, like Paul Carter does it.
Like lateral raise 350 and DB ohp 350, should give you some delt pump especially if you do it on top of the delt complex
yes pick a weight amrap it, rest a minute amrap, rest a minute final amrap. When you hit 50+ reps you increase the weight.
something like 20 lb lateral raise hit 25 first set then 15 then 11 and you can up the weights next time.
You could probably cut the rest time a bit.
I really need to stop eating the animal crackers. This bulk/gain phase is getting dirtier every week. I haven’t been eating many vegetables and I don’t want them. I don’t crave them. When I’m packing my lunch I have no desire to add raw broccoli. I’m great with protein and carbs (mostly starchy carbs).
Any ideas, gents? The only thing that’s cheap to buy is raw broccoli or the California blend (broccoli, carrots, cauliflower). I don’t really enjoy eating any of that. I can force it, but it’s easy to skip that container when I’m busy at work. We have frozen veggies (peas and green beans), but I rarely bring those. I suck.
It’s Week 11 Day 3 tonight. I’ll be doing 5/4/3/2/1 on lower body but I’m doing 20% less weight to help recover for Monday’s peak session. Monday will be the heaviest the weights get on this program. I’ve already failed on OHP during this phase so I’ll probably drop the weight there. Everything else is going up one more time.
I’m schedule for a 185 RFESS but if that’s easy then I’ll try 205. 405 is planned for box squat. 255 is planned for power clean but I’ll keep going until I miss. Deadlift is supposed to be 495 and I’ll probably call it there. I’ll do my 20% lighter workout next Friday and then the following week I’ll probably do a deadlift only session and see where I’m at. I’m hoping for 565 (5 plates + 35’s) but the weights have felt heavy lately so I don’t know what to expect. I’ll also cheat and use the deadlift bar for a change.
I also need to do an assessment after next week. Photos, measurements, etc. It’s time for a comparison to the last time I finished SGSS and to the start of the year. I know my belly has grown; hopefully something else has too.
225 is the goal after reading the article on T-Nation a while back. Apparently high school kids are doing it.
I don’t do well with complete deloads. I think for the reasons discovered last week (neurotype 1ish who needs to train to keep dopamine high), I do better if I’m active. I always felt like crap the week after a deload on 5/3/1. I went to the gym expecting to feel awesome and strong and then everything would feel 20 pounds heavier than it should.
I think by doing 20% less weight four days after my heavy day (on Monday) plus an extra day or two off the following week will serve as my deload. Last time I ran SGSS I pulled my PR the week after week 12.
It’s misting/drizzling all day at work and luckily it’s slow, but I’m a bit bored. I’ve been thinking about my training and I’m playing with the idea of hitting legs once a week and upper body twice a week. I could keep my MWF split that I planned but instead of three full body sessions it’d be upper body Mon/Fri and legs on Wednesday. I’d still do cleans and clean pulls on Mon/Fri though. My leg sessions would be about like the SGSS sessions with RDL’s or other hamstring work instead of power cleans.
2 LAP DYNAMIC WARM UP
+
CONDITIONING
4 laps of run the straightaway, walk the curve
DEADLIFT
135 x 5
225 x 5
305 x 5
325 x 4
345 x 3
365 x 2
385 x 1 My top set was 80% of what I did Monday and I just picked decent increments for the rest of the sets. I did this for everything but cleans today.
POWER CLEAN
135 x 3
185 x 3
195 x 3
205 x 3
215 x 3
225 x 4
BOX SQUAT 21.5"
235 x 5
255 x 4
275 x 3
295 x 2
315 x 1
RFESS
105 x 5
115 x 4
125 x 3
135 x 2
145 x 1
HIP ABDUCTION/ADDUCTION MACHINE
150/170 x 15 x 2 sets
LAT CABLE RAISE (350 SET)
10 x 30, 13, 9 I’m kind of between weights on these so I went light, moved slow, and focused on using only my delts. I stopped a little short or parallel with the ground because I could feel my traps kick in.
The lifting portion took 60 minutes on the dot. The warm up and conditioning took a little less than 14 minutes. This was a long workout for a Friday night but I couldn’t move any faster.
I felt like a lumbering giant on the indoor track. I guess being 6’4" and 250 is large for the space. People made sure to move quickly when they crossed in front on me. I also was moving slow. I can feel the extra 30 lbs compared to my running before hip surgery may year (when I was sub 220).
I forgot to weigh myself this morning but I woke up hungry. Surely that means I was lighter, right?
I made it to the work gym and managed to use the bathroom but then I had to get suited back up and go back to work. It picked up as soon as I sat down so I figured I’d go help out. I’ve been at the scene of a traffic collision for over an hour now. Tow trucks sent by the insurance company take FOREVER.
I’ve decided to test CT’s muscle migration theory. I’m trying to put together a shoulder specialization program and I want to train three days a week. Wednesdays will be my big leg day. I’m thinking about following the SGSS progression and skipping the first day of each week. That means I’ll do 5 x 8 for three weeks with progressively heavier weights, 5 x 5 for three weeks, 5 x 3 for three weeks, and then I’ll assess or just start over.
Power cleans are also getting some love. I’ll be doing a dedicated power clean program on Mondays and Fridays. Hopefully I can figure out how to train chest and back on those days too. I have a feeling that my workouts might get a bit long… we’ll see.
Well, I didn’t make it back to the gym. I’ll have to try again tomorrow.
I’ve decided to run this shoulder program once I finish SGSS. I’ll have two shoulder days during weeks 1-4 along with a leg day and back/chest day. During weeks 5-8 I’ll only have one shoulder day so it’ll be a three day per week program.
The ideal split would probably be something like Mon/Wed/Thurs/Sat but I’m doing Mon/Tue/Wed/Fri to take advantage of my three days off. I really don’t like training on work days. It’s either rushed or it takes away from my limited family time.
